Post navigation

I’m always up for doing a good deed for my fellow friends in Treatsland. :) When these Red Velvet Oreos came out, my brain just naturally defaulted to the idea of doing some fancy chocolate covered versions of these in pretty gift boxes, but I was just kinda bored with that idea after doing so many for Christmas. Then last night I got to thinking about all the receipes out there for Oreo Rice Krispy Treats and it dawned on me – I knew what needed to be done.

I can’t help it – I have a weakness for Valentine’s Day. I’ve said before and I’ll say it many times over again – I love the day of love. All the haters that spew negativity with their whole “Valentine’s Day is just a Hallmark holiday …” and “Valentine’s Day is just a ploy for people to spend their money …” blah, blah, blah … should look at the focus of February 14th: it’s LOVE. Not chocolate. Not lingerie. Not gifts. Not even Hallmark cards. Focus on somebody you love and show them you care with a simple homemade gesture.

I’ll stop there, but I will say — I’m a sucker for all the adorableness out there in red + pink, so I just HAD to make something. So here it is, as valentine-y as it gets: Red Velvet Oreos, Rice Krispies, Marshmallows, White Chocolate drizzle and heart sprinkles. The heart-shaped cookie cutter is just a nice (and very easy) touch, but they’d be just as full of love if you went traditional and cut ‘em in squares. Make some yourself!

Chop and mash Red Velvet Oreos. You want the Oreos to be a variety of sizes from chunky to finely crushed.Tip: Put Oreos in a large ziplock bag and crush with a mallet or wooden spoon to help keep the mess under control.

Add Oreos to Rice Krispy cereal and stir to combine.

In a medium sauce pan, heat butter and marshmallows together over medium heat, stirring constantly, until melted

Pour melted marshmallows over cereal and oreos. Use a spatula sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to quickly combine all the ingredients

As soon as all the cereal is combined, spread mixture into the prepared 9×13″ dish. Use the spatula to press the mixture around the dish, and flatten as needed.

Let sit until completely cooled.Note: When the rice krispie treats are cooled, you can use a heart cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes, or cut into traditional squares. Melt white chocolate to drizzle and add sprinkles if you want for a pretty finish and let set until hardened.

… and they’re legit.I enlisted the help of my #1 cookie tester yesterday to see if Red Velvet Oreos are something I should be looking into for a Four-Eyed Girlie Limited Edition Valentine Boxed Set this year (’cause you know I love making things with Oreos). I mean, they are pretty appealing to me for many reasons (they are red and red velvet flavored, enough said), but I wanted to make sure they didn’t have that chemically, artificial taste similar to strawberry cake mix and blue raspberry icees.

In short — they don’t taste artificial. I dig the crunchy red-velvety tasting cookie, but I think the most convincing part is the cream cheese filling. At least that’s what my cookie tester said. The cream cheese filling is definitely softer than the regular Oreo filling, but don’t worry — they’re definitely still stackable. :)

So yeah, pick some up – you just might have the same reaction yourself once you peel back that seal and feast your eyes on that lovely red velvety goodness. The package is smaller than the regular variety (just 20 cookies), so may help to lessen the guilt.

I’m totally cheating and back-dating this entry, but I had to post the Red Bull + Vodka shots I made for New Years Eve this year because I’ll probably need to refer back to this again next year so I can stay up til midnight. I was buzzed, caffeinated and then some — these jell-o shots are no joke. They actually made the devil’s energy drink more palatable though, and hey — they are pretty impressive looking too.

1 Bite-Size Squares 24-Cavity Silicone Mold (they have these at Michaels)
YOU TOTALLY WANT THIS. You’ll use it for other projects anyway – especially more jello shots.

What you need to do:

Spray the mold with cooking spray or coconut oil lightly and cut your cherries in half and reserve for later. (This helps the cherries stand upright in the shots)

Pour 1 1/2c. Red Bull into a medium sauce pan (should be almost the whole can). Sprinkle your 1 and 1/2 packets of gelatin on top (don’t stir) and let it sit for 2 minutes to activate the gelatin.

Turn on low heat and stir in the gelatin until it all dissolves. Let the Red Bull get to a light boil and turn off the heat. Let it cool slightly and then add 1/2 cup of vodka.

Pour half of your Red Bull jello mixture into your molds (or pan) let refrigerate and harden (about 2 hours). Place one cherry in each mold (or spread out an inch apart on in a pan) with the stem side up and cut side down, upright.

Top with the rest of the jello mixture gently, not disturbing the upright cherries. Let refrigerate over night. Carefully, take a butter knife and edge around each mold to help release the shot. Pop them out and serve.

Tip: Michelle says to lightly grease your serving tray with cooking spray or coconut oil before serving so the shots don’t stick and break when people try to pick them up by the cherry stem. I just lined my serving tray with wax paper.

In honor of the biggest night celebrating movies, for your consideration: S’mores Popcorn. Four ingredients. Five minutes. You can do this.

Not gonna lie, Four-Eyed Girlie’s had her hands full lately. I’ve been out of the kitchen and trying to whittle the waistline, so I haven’t been up to my usual shameless indulgences. But it’s Oscars Night people, and I need a snack. Just like Amy Adams isn’t showing up in her usual jeans/t-shirt combo, I’m not munching on the standard carrot sticks + hummus.

I decided no night honoring the movies was right without popcorn, so I went on a frantic internet search to find out how to take it to the next level. All I needed was microwave popcorn, marshmallows, golden grahams and chocolate chips. Thank you, Kellie — I’m soooo glad I found your blog, Nest of Posies.

Happy New Year! Excuse the Christmas packaging, but I’m a little late on posting this. Couldn’t let it slip by though – this would be a delicious addition to your party tables tonight. They’re quick, easy and fall right in line with everybody’s mindset of staving off sweets after the holiday over-indulgences. You can make these for the party or package them up to give to your friends to start off the new year. Enjoy!

Did Christmas sneak up on you as fast as it did for me this year? With limited time, I decided that I would ditch all my baking from scratch (gasp!) and have a little fun with Oreos this year. After all, it’s kind of merging my love for candy-making with cookies, and how could that be anything but a win? I had a lot of fun playing with different varieties of Oreos and chocolate combinations to make both pops and chocolate-covered treats. It’s so easy to do, I almost feel bad for bragging about doing it.

Christmas Oreo Treats, project #1: Gingerbread Cookie Pops
I’ve been holding on to this little idea for awhile. After I first saw them on Love From the Oven I knew I had to make them. Did you know there were Gingerbread Oreos? Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them here locally in CA this year, but thank goodness Target came out with some generic “Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies” under their Market Pantry label. They tasted great and allowed me to stick with the theme!
All you gotta do to make these cute little pops are buy some cookies, some white chocolate and some popsicle or lollipop sticks (and whatever sprinkles you think would make them look cute, if you’re into that).

Screw the tops off your “oreos”, lay ‘em on a tray, and get your chocolate melted. You dip the sticks in the melted chocolate, and gently push them down into the layer of creme filling. Make sure you’ve got enough chocolate on there to stick to the cookie once you put top back on as well. Once they’re put back together (“glued” by the chocolate), stick them in the freezer so the chocolate can set and the sticks will be in place.

Add a pinch of cinnamon to your white chocolate and about 10 mins. after the cookies have been in the freezer, dip them again to make the cookie pop. Add sprinkles/decorations and you’ve got yourself a tasty and adorable little treat!(Find The Domestic Rebel‘s original recipe post here.)

I used lollipop wrappers from Wilton and found cute holiday-themed twist ties to wrap ‘em up with. Piece of cake. And because I’m a sucker for those Candy Cane Oreos (and anything Peppermint flavored or themed during Christmas for that matter!), I did Milk Chocolate Candy Cane Oreo Pops as well.

Christmas Oreo Treats, project #2: Chocolate Covered Poinsettia Oreos
Seriously – these are so impressive and all you have to do is melt some chocolate into a mold and stick an Oreo in it – they really are that easy! My mom and I found poinsettia molds on the amazing Fancy Flours site a few years ago and we finally tried making a few last year. Since they turned out so gorgeous, we knew we wanted to make them for gifts this year. We bought Winter Oreos (regular Oreos with red filling) and made red poinsettias, and I bought some White Mint Chocolate to make white poinsettias with Candy Cane Oreos.
First, I melted a tiny bit of red chocolate to put in the center part of the flower mold (I used yellow on the red poinsettias) and let that chocolate set. Then, I filled 1/2 the mold with white chocolate, submerged the Oreo, and covered the top. They’re ready to pop right out of the mold in about 15 minutes!

Christmas Oreo Treats, project #3: White Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Oreos decorated with icing and sprinkles
I bought plain molds like these to get a cleaner look than the pops, and I was really pleased with how they turned out. It was fun to use different sprinkles and toppings to create different looks for each one. I didn’t use anything fancy — just the Red and White sprinkles out of Wilton’s Christmas Confetti Sprinkle Mix, some of the white candy canes from Wilton’s Candy Cane Sprinkles, Crushed Candy Cane Topping and red, white and green cookie icing. Since I didn’t have boxes to fit three, I cut gold cardstock to fit inside of the Wilton Pretzel Bag and used my hole punch to add two holes to feed my ribbon through. I tied it up in bow and had a pretty little trio to gift a few friends with.

In the end, it was a really fun and easy way to dress up Oreos that ended up looking great. I made a few larger variety boxes with 6 cookies and wrapped them up with ribbon to give as gifts, too. I can safely say I’ll be making these again. You should too!

When I found out that my friend Danny had been given the task of making Saveur Magazine’s Salted Caramel Apple Pie for the Thanksgiving Dinner she’d be attending, I was all up in her business asking if I could help. I’ve never made a pie before and I was eager to check that off the bucket list. Kicking off my pie-making career with this recipe was one heck of a start, but I’m happy to say that we climbed Pie Mountain and each had our own pies to show for it … barely.

Things got off to a good start: we’d donned adorable aprons, we’d made our flaky butter pie dough, apples were sliced and doused appropriately for their 1st phase of marination and the remaining steps ahead of us sounded delicious. But wow, Saveur sure knows how to make a recipe convoluted — there were only three steps numbered in the recipes, but each step had many more tasks within the paragraph! With two sets of eyes (and two pretty sharp brains) you’d think we’d catch everything, but each time we referred back to the recipe, we seemed to find something we’d missed. No big deal, we made a quick jaunt to the grocery store for a package of pie shells (oops, the receipe makes two crusts, but we needed two for one pie) and heavy cream (no, the 4 sticks of butter weren’t enough I guess).

Upon our return, the homemade dough was properly chilled, so it was time to roll it out. Danny didn’t mess around, she busted out her ruler and took cutting those 1.5″ strips seriously. Our apples had been doused in round two of their marinade, and they were ready to get into that pie crust and get cozy with the salted caramel sauce we were making. The caramel sauce turned out just as described … deep reddish brown and seductively shiny-looking. That caramel was almost a lacquer once it got inside of the pie pan. We decided to both use one homemade crust and one store-bought so we could each taste the fruits of our labor. Once the lattice detail on top was complete, we were ready to throw these babies in the oven.

At the end of SIX HOURS, we were ready to call it a night … it was late, we both were semi-delirious, and Danny assured me we both didn’t have to wait for them to bake, I could swing by in the morning and pick up my pie before dinner.

Poor Danny. Apparently that’s when things got crazy. Suddenly, smoke was filling the kitchen, and when she looked in the oven, all the filling was bubbling and leaking outside of the pie pans. WTF? She was able to keep her smoke alarm from sounding after midnight and miraculously — she also somehow managed to save these pies from destruction. They were completely intact and edible, even if they had a sloshy filling.

So what went wrong?

Well, somehow we managed to forget about that heavy cream that sat in the fridge; apparently, we were supposed to have added it to the caramel sauce after taking it off the burner. I think we were being so careful to not burn the caramel, we just plum forgot. I think that forgetting the heavy cream is what caused our caramel sauce to melt back down to its buttery-pure sugar state and eventually, bubble and run over at high temps in the oven. My thought is without the cream, the sauce couldn’t congeal and stay creamy and thick in the filling.

Was it still good?

Yes, the pie was tasty. It was flavorful and delicious, but instead of sticky gooey caramel sauce intermixed with honey crisp apples, we had more of a caramel apple marinade inside.

Was making your own crust worth it?

Tough call. It was my 1st time, and I don’t have much to compare it to, but based on this experience — no. Instinct told me that the consistency wasn’t quite right, but it still worked and it still tasted great. However, the difference between the store bought and homemade wasn’t worth the hassle in this particular case.

Should I make this pie myself?

Why not? I will say, I felt very accomplished. I’ll also say that it was a very testy recipe though. If you do take on this task, allow yourself a lot of time and do it with a friend. It definitely took the stress off and many f-bombs in the kitchen were replaced with laughs!

At the end of the day, I made a pie, it tasted good, and I had a blast with my pal, Danny. It was a win all around. Be sure to let me know if you brave this recipe — click this link to get on your way!